And done. Killer and his knife can both slot one, his bracer (part of his off duty clothing of choice) has two slots. Also added a brief note explaining that he doesn't like Materia, pretty much because he doesn't understand it, and he's wary of things he doesn't understand.

Speaking of, since everyone's using Materia of some kind, should I start Leo off with higher-level stuff (i.e. Fira, Blizzara, Thundara), or just imply he can use the same spells more effectively?

He'll get more materia slots, and due to his training, have more skill casting them. The spells will be a little more powerful (though a Fira from one of the others will still be more powerful than a Fire from him), and he'll have more stamina when casting. (Basically, he gets more Materia Slots, a higher MAG, and a higher Max MP :U)

I'm thinking:

Melee: Med MAG, Low MP, 3-4 Materia Slots (2 linked)

Marksman: Med MAG, Low MP, 3-4 Materia Slots (2 linked)

Demo: Low MAG, Med MP, 3-4 Materia Slots (2 Linked)

Hacker: High MAG, Low MP, 4-5 Materia Slots (2 Linked)

Heavy: Low MAG, Low MP, 2-3 Materia Slots (2 Linked)

Mighty Grunt: Low MAG, Low MP, 2-3 Materia Slots (0 Linked)

Medic: High MAG, Med MP, 4-5 Materia Slots (4 linked)

Mage: High MAG, High MP, 8 Materia Slots (6 Linked)

Command: Med MAG, Med MP, 4 Materia Slots (4 Linked)

I put a little variation in most of them, so its not too restrictive. This IS freeform, and not system after all. I just think sticking to those parameters will help keep things relatively balanced.

Simply put, Low MAG means your spells will be weaker than average, Demo has Low Mag but Med MP because I can imagine there would be uses for magic in demolitions (set off explosives with a fire spell, for example) but they wouldn't generally be casting said spells AT enemies, so wouldn't be trained to deal heavy direct damage with them.

Low MP means you'll be tired out by casting sooner. Melee and Marksman have Low MP but Med MAG because they'd be trained to rely more on their weapons, but would be given SOME training on utilizing magic in a pinch, so they'd be trained to make what little magic they cast count.

Heavy and Mighty Grunt are both... well... pitiful with magic, because they spend so much time focusing on their gear. Because the Heavy is expected to fight on foot, while the Mighty Grunt isn't, however, they are given two linked slots, while the Mighty Grunt isn't. Linked slots, in case you don't remember from FF7, allow materia to be linked with support materia for added effects (HP Absorb, MP Absorb, Quadra Magic, All, MP Turbo, etc.)

Medic has High MAG and Med MP, because they have to use restorative materia as part of injury treatment. However, being primarily support in that regard, and not offensive, they're not expected to be throwing magic around constantly, and thus don't have the same stamina as Mage does for it.

Mage has high MAG, MP and the most materia slots, and the most linked, making them the most skilled with magic in all regards.

Command is balanced as they're expected to be adaptable, and capable of leading by example. They can't hold a candle to Mage or Medic, but are better at it than the others. In exchange, Command also lacks the specialized skills of each other others, or their gear. As a result, Command is basically a jack-of-all-trades type character, able to fill in for the others until they can get back on their feet.

I'll also post up a list of materia shortly. Any questions or comments, suggestions to any lapse in logic I may have had?

EDIT: Hacker has high MAG, but Low MP, as they are not intended to engage in prolonged direct combat. They do train to hit hard, however, that way, when they MUST use a spell, they make it count. Thunder spells could also be used to disrupt electronics, and aid in their hacking, status spells would also assist in swiftly incapacitating.

Sounds fair and makes sense. I can only imagine that following list support materias would make sense for Heavy; Added cut (if get some non-mp using materia like deathblow or throw), Added Effect (great for both offense and defense depending which slot has link; weapon or armor), Counter (deathblow and throw again), Elemental (same as Added Effect), HP Absorb (same as Added Cut/Counter).

I think demolition could have throw materia (makes sense). Deathblow, altough not so accurate, can have promising heavy impact when done by heavy.

Another idea; All+Barrier. True heavy guy has not much 'mana' nor magic. But barrier is not affected what magic skills you have, only asks mana activate. I would imagine heavy is using All materia so he can form barrier of force on himself plus anyone with him. But he has enough mana to pull the barrier up only once or twice in a fight/battle. So even if he gets master level barrier he would need choose what barrier to apply.

Edit; Also Enemy Lure materia would be good. If we assume it does not increase encounter number but rather increases how well said characther pulls attention of enemies in operations (as said heavy is armored and has trained to have most HP besides mighty grunt which excells even more in that field).

That makes it sound like I'm just slightly better at magic than everyone else, though, and they'll all have a few spells to fling around, anyway. So I might as well say my character can also utilize bazookas and chains guns and sniper rifles and can hack stuff, but just a little worse than given specialists.

That makes it sound like I'm just slightly better at magic than everyone else, though, and they'll all have a few spells to fling around, anyway. So I might as well say my character can also utilize bazookas and chains guns and sniper rifles and can hack stuff, but just a little worse than given specialists.

Well, your character would also be given a much greater allotment of materia. (You can have more materia than slots, as you pick up more in the rp, but you can't swap and cast in the same post, I'll have the magic rules explained in the first post of the OOC thread.) They would also have more linked slots than anyone else, allowing them to have boost their spells with things like All and MP Turbo.

That said, I think I will boost it up to 8 for Mage, with the last two slots unlinked, they can be used for MP+ and MAG+ if you wish, making your character even more of a magic-blasting canon, or additional spells, to add even more to your arsenal.

Also, whenever more materia is granted, mage will be given priority with any offensive spells, and secondary priority after medic with restorative spells. (At first, materia will be granted by Shinra command, after that, Yuge as commander of the squad will see to the distribution of it, and there may perhaps be other ways to find it.)

I think you have no worries for heavy encroach your territory . Even if he is given green materia he is crappy in using it. Mage overall trumps down everyone both in input and sustain when it comes delivering magic.....and they can have more variety which is key thing. As my case if I have All+Bolt materia, it means my materia choices are useless if facing electricity immune mobs where you can have 2 or even 3 elements usable in given encounter (and we can expand utility of said elements; fire to trigger explosives, ice to prevent explosives detonating or bolt to cause electric failure on security).

Just an update, the materia list IS in progress. It's just taking a bit longer than I expected because I'm trying to combine the materia from the existing games and... just generally make it all workable.